The game of baseball is well-known and well loved in the United States, Japan and other parts of the world. A principal object in playing the game is to strike a thrown ball with a bat, to direct the ball to a place in the playing field where the ball will not be caught or easily played. Another object is to hit the ball so far that it leaves the boundaries of the playing field, for a "home run." In the baseball variant of "hardball", the ball is relatively small, on the order of three inches in diameter, and can be thrown relatively fast, with the best professional pitchers achieving speeds of over 100 miles per hour, and good amateurs achieving lower, but still high speeds. Many pitchers are also able to impart initial conditions to the ball as thrown, so that its trajectory departs significantly from a straight line, thereby adding to the difficulty in striking the ball cleanly.
Conventional bats, with which a batter must strike a ball, are typically made of wood, such as ash or, less often, hickory. The bat is typically tapered, having a fat end of no more than two and three-quarters inches in diameter, tapering down gradually to about one and one-quarter inches at the handle. A professional, official hardball bat typically weighs between thirty-one and thirty-six ounces and is less than forty-two inches in length.
Another well known variant of baseball is known as "softball," because the ball that is used is softer and larger than a baseball, having a diameter on the order of four and one half inches. Recreational softball is typically pitched underhand, so the ball travels more slowly than in hardball. However, fast pitch softball pitchers can achieve speeds on the order of the speeds attained by professional baseball pitchers. Because the distance between the softball pitching mound and the batter is only two-thirds that of professional hardball the time for a batter to target a fast pitched softball may be even less than that for a professional baseball batter
Needless to say, the small size of the ball, the high speed at which it is pitched, the potential irregular trajectory, and the relatively small size of the bat all contribute to the difficulty in striking the ball cleanly, and directing it to an advantageous location in the playing field. Even the best professional baseball players seldom have successful batting averages of over 0.350, with the vast majority of players hitting at below 0.300.
Many approaches have been proposed and some have been implemented to improve the batter's chances of striking the ball cleanly. For instance, bats have been proposed having textured surfaces that ostensibly improve the likelihood that a ball that is struck off-center will, nevertheless, land in the playing field, rather than going outside of the playing field, for a "foul" ball. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 771,247, issued in 1904 to J. A. Hillerich, discloses a bat having a striking surface with fish scale-type wedged points, arranged so that if a ball is hit squarely, the flat portion of a fish scale wedge impacts the ball, while, if the ball is hit glancingly, the point of a fish scale impacts the ball. Impact with the point of the fish scale is supposed to grip the ball more closely to the center of the bat, minimizing the likelihood of a foul hit.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,530,427, issued in 1925 to Simon, discloses another bat to reduce the hitting of foul balls. The bat has concavities or indentations in close relation, the depressions "conforming to the surface of the ball" and their outer edges being rounded to prevent injury to the ball when coming in contact therewith. The patent states that the indentations conform approximately to the diameter of the ball, however, what is meant by that statement is unclear. The inventor states that if the ball comes into contact with "some one of the depressions," a foul hit will be prevented.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,900, issued in 1988 to Carr, discloses a baseball bat having a striking surface roughened with macroscopic grooves and superimposed microscopic roughening, which are adapted to enhance the tendency of the ball to spin when struck off-center. The spin is intended to enhance the trajectory of the ball.
It is also common for players to use metal bats. The bats are typically aluminum, or an alloy. One advantage of metal bats may be that the ball can be hit farther, due principally to the relatively high elasticity of the metal, as compared to a wooden bat. The result of the collision between the ball and the metal bat is that the bat springs to some extent, and upon relaxation, some of the spring energy is imparted to the ball. Metal bats are also favored because the weight distribution can be adjusted in ways not feasible with a wooden bat, so that more of the weight of the bat is near to the spot where the ball is typically struck. Thus, more of the total momentum in the bat is transferred to the ball. Another very important advantage of metal bats is that they are much more durable than wooden bats, and thus save money for those who use them a great deal.
Metal bats are not currently permitted under the rules of professional baseball in The United States. One reason for this is that the sound that a metal bat makes when it strikes a ball is very different from the sound that a wooden bat makes. The metal bat has a tinny, hollow sound, whereas the wooden bat has a solid, familiar sound. Many participants in the playing and administration of baseball hold as an important objective maintenance of the traditional aspects of the game. One of these traditional aspects is the sound that the ball and bat make upon impact.
Composite bats, for instance of a graphite fiber composition, have also been used, for similar reasons to metal bats. The graphite bat also makes a different sound upon impact with the ball.
For a general discussion of the history of the design of baseball bats, (and other baseball equipment) see Robert K. Adair, The Physics of Baseball, Harper & Row, New York, N.Y., pp. 78-106 (1990), which is incorporated herein by reference.
It is desirable to increase the batter's ability to fairly strike a ball, without changing the traditional aspects of the game of baseball, such as the sound that the impact of ball and bat make. Another aspect of baseball that is now traditional, is the opinion that a ball glancingly struck should travel as if it were glancingly struck, i.e. as a foul ball, or a ground ball, or a pop fly. In other words, a player who can strike the ball squarely should have an advantage over one who can not, and the bat should not be designed to minimize this advantage, or equalize two players. However, there is a significant portion of the ball playing community for whom a bat that is easier to swing would be a welcome addition to the game, as long as other traditional features are maintained.
Thus, the several objects of the invention are to provide a ball bat that: is easier to swing than a traditional bat; that, if made from wood, sounds like a traditional wooden bat when striking the ball; that does not affect the trajectory of a ball struck a glancing blow; that does not weaken the physical integrity of a bat; that does not increase the cost of a bat; and that can improve the swingability of wooden, metal and composite bats.